


you need help.

by Anonymous



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Childhood Trauma, Coping, Drug Withdrawal, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Non-Sexual Age Play, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Past Drug Addiction, Past Drug Use, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-13
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-11-17 17:43:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18103340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: They stopped the apocalypse. Everything is fine. Klaus is sober.Ben realizes, though, that Klaus threw himself in the deep end by sobering himself up, leaving him with no coping skills and no coping mechanisms, which is quickly sending him downhill. But Ben is set on helping his brother recover, and find a way for him to cope.What Klaus ends up finding for himself, though, is..  odder, than Ben could have ever imagined.





	you need help.

**Author's Note:**

> yea AU where they stop the apocalypse, and i KNOW this is weird ass shit but i WANTED to fuckin do this so leave me alone smh

There was no easy way to get sober, Klaus had figured out. There weren’t any tips or tricks that made the ride any less bumpy. And even after being sober for over three days, he was still as jumpy as ever. Sure, he wasn’t high as a kite, but he was too functional, he’d decided. He wasn’t coping— not with the constant voices, not with the flashbacks to his abuse or neglect. He felt everything.

Ben was concerned, to say the least. They’d stopped the apocalypse, and everything was quiet and back to normal, but Klaus was far from well. He’d sleep all the time, and when he wasn’t sleeping he was spacing out, or having some sort of breakdown. He knew Klaus needed a coping mechanism that wasn’t drugs— he needed one that was healthy and not harmful to his body.

“Klaus.” He spoke, eyeing his brother, who was sitting on his bed staring at the wall. He had been for about half an hour now. 

It took him a second to register, but Klaus finally looked in his direction. His eyes were tired, and he just looked tired overall, despite the amount of sleep he was getting.

“You need help.” Ben said frankly, not seeing a point in dancing around the subject. Klaus’s brows rose, and he almost looked offended.

“What do you mean? I’m sober. I have been. It’s been almost a week and I haven’t had a single pill, or a single drink, or an edible, or anything!” He was working himself up, being so defensive. “Do I just need help no matter what? No matter what I do? I need help if I’m on drugs, I need help if I’m off them,” He’s stood up off the bed, “‘Oh, Klaus, you need help, you-‘“

“Shut up! Okay?” Ben shouted, fed up. Klaus was paranoid, depressed, and isolating himself, no matter how much he tried to hide it. Ben didn’t deny that he was sober— he knew that he was sober, but now he was dealing with all the things he took drugs to get away from in the first place. “I’m not trying to say you’re some maniac, but you do have issues. Everyone in our family does. I mean, dad locked you up in a mausoleum by yourself when you were thirteen, for god’s sakes. Everyone of us had our childhoods ripped away from us, basically. As for me, I had my literal life taken away. That doesn’t make you crazy. It makes you in need of support.”

Klaus just stared at him through his whole speech, looking vacant, although Ben could tell he was listening. Suddenly, his eyes got glassy and his lip began to tremble— sort of how a toddler looked when they were about to burst into sobs. “I don’t know what the fuck I’m supposed to do!” He admitted, his voice cracking, “I don’t know how to feel better without drugs, I don’t even know if it’s possible! I just want to be happy like everyone is, I want Dave back, and I wanna be with him and I-“ He stopped dead in his sentence, like he couldn’t bear to go further, and he buried his face in his hands, sitting back down on the bed. 

Ben’s heart ached. He’d watched Klaus go through everything— he’d watched him destroy himself, and he’d watched him fall in love, and he’d watched him lose everything again. And now he was watching him struggle to put himself back together. It was painful.

He sat next to Klaus on the bed, putting an arm around his shoulders and feeling grateful that he could touch the man now that he was sobered up. “You just need to find something that works, is healthy, and that’ll help you. That’s how anyone learns to cope with anything.” He told him. Klaus had found a way to cope early on, but it was the worst thing imaginable, and only now, years and years later, was he getting over it.

Klaus nodded slightly, not bothering to wipe the tear streaks from his face. Ben patted his arm reassuringly.

He hoped Klaus would find something that worked.


End file.
